NBC Orders Live Competition Series The Million Second Quiz

Wednesday

Apr 24, 2013 at 4:25 AM

NBC plans to air a major, multi-night game show event at the start of fall in order to help launch its new primetime schedule. The Peacock network has just picked up The Million Second Quiz, a 12-day event that will ...

TV Guide

NBC plans to air a major, multi-night game show event at the start of fall in order to help launch its new primetime schedule. The Peacock network has just picked up The Million Second Quiz, a 12-day event that will likely air in September.

The competition will center on contestants as they battle each other over trivia questions for 12 consecutive days and nights. The show will exist online, as well as on live primetime episodes that will take place from a "gigantic hourglass-shaped structure" somewhere in Manhattan. It's there that the four players who have remained in the game the longest will actually live and continue to play - 24 hours a day, or risk being eliminated from the primetime show.

Paul Telegdy, NBC's president of alternative and late night programming, calls The Million Second Quiz "a game, a social experiment, and a live interactive event" all in one.

"The Million Second Quiz is a genre-redefining spectacle," he says. "It embraces technology's ability to allow everyone in America to actively participate and compete in a way that has never been done."

Viewers will be able to play along at home and win a chance at appearing on the primetime show. Local NBC stations will also sync to the game, live throughout the day.

At the end of the million seconds - which spans just under 12 days - the show's champions will duke it out for a chance at winning a cash prize of up to $10 million. NBC is still ironing out some of the details, including when it will air and whether it will run on consecutive nights in primetime.